African Entrepreneurship Record

Angola, Matara.

To the west of Matara is the Luanda Kingdom, which was not completely wiped out by East Africa because the Luanda Kingdom spans both sides of the Kongou River, and East Africa only took the land on the eastern side.

The main part of the Luanda Kingdom was originally on the west bank of the Kongou River, so most of the Luanda people fled directly to the west bank after encountering the East African army, and the Luanda Kingdom did not suffer much loss this time.

To the west of the Luanda Kingdom, Matara is one of the most inland colonies of the Portuguese in Angola.

As a Portuguese colonial stronghold, there are no special mineral resources here, but the land is flat, and rainfall is abundant, so the Portuguese have established large plantations in Matara, mainly growing palm trees and coffee.

The plantations in Matara consist mainly of two estates, one in the north owned by Oliveira, and another in the south owned by Yadros. At this moment, the two of them are riding horses together, patrolling the plantation.

The indigenous slaves in the plantation are hard at work in the fields, branded, and with shackles on their feet, supervised by a white overseer for every forty or fifty slaves.

Under the scorching sun, the white overseers wield long whips, ready to whip the hard-working indigenous slaves to perk them up. If anyone tries to shirk, the consequences would be even more dreadful.

On both sides of the road, simple wooden crosses about two meters high stand, with ropes wrapped around either side. The weathered crosses are pitch black, seemingly stained with oil, but upon closer inspection, it is faintly visible that the wood is not pure black. The original color of the cross can be guessed from the back, it was originally yellow logs.

The black stain is actually the result of the indigenous blood repeatedly dyeing the wood, coupled with years of exposure to the elements.

The crosses are the plantation's instruments of punishment, intended to deal with lazy and disobedient slaves, and occasionally used to make an example.

People at the Matara plantation would tie the slaves to be punished on these crosses and whip them. Those guilty of grave offenses might be left hanging for two to three days.

Oliveira, riding on his horse, asked Yadros, "Yadros, have you noticed anything recently? Aren't the numbers of indigenous people increasing? I drove away three groups just yesterday that were passing near our plantation."

"Indeed, it seems so. I wonder what the Luanda Kingdom is up to, could there be unrest in their land?"

"It's quite possible, the indigenous tribes of Luanda are often at war with each other, perhaps another intertribal conflict is playing out."

"It feels a bit off though, even if there is unrest in the Luanda Kingdom, they shouldn't be heading west, should they? They know Angola well enough, do they really see this place as a paradise?"

"That's true, historically, the indigenous people would only flee eastwards, yet these days they're coming from inside Luanda, something is too unusual! Could there be something more terrifying than us?"

"To make the indigenous people not even fear us and come to Matara from the east, it must be something truly frightening."

At this time, Yadros speculated, "Have these indigenous folks gone mad coming over in droves from the west, could there be a plague in the west?"

Thinking of this, Oliveira and Yadros suddenly felt a chill. A plague was not uncommon for the colonies in Angola, and if that's really the case, then we're all in danger.

"We should handle this matter with care, it's better to have someone go and capture a few of those indigenous people to inquire about the situation."

...

Following orders from the two slave owners, the plantation's armed forces quickly moved to the surrounding area to capture suspicious indigenous individuals. They soon caught a few healthy-looking indigenous people from among the fleeing populace.

"Why are you running from the east on such a large scale?" the plantation's translator asked.

"Gulu gulu gulu..."

After listening for a while, the translator said, "Mr. Oliveira, the accent of these indigenous people is quite different from that of the Luanda Kingdom, what they said isn't easy to translate! But some points are similar."

Oliveira asked, "Not from the Luanda Kingdom! Could you find out where they're from?"

"They said they were driven over from the west by a group of strangers, passing through the Luanda Kingdom's land, but the people of Luanda did not take them in, so they moved past Luanda to come here. However, those who drove them were dressed like us, hence they bypassed our plantation."

"Dressed like us? We haven't had any major operations recently, have we?" Oliveira asked Yadros.

"Of course not, the Governor's Mansion hasn't issued any orders either, and even if the colonial government had any big moves, they couldn't bypass us, I'm in the far west of Angola!" Yadros said, "So it must be someone else. Regardless, for such a big movement, it must not be just any faction, I have a suspicious candidate in mind."

"Hmm!"

"Could it be the Mozambique colony behind this, as they're in the east and dressed like us, it's quite possible it's the Mozambique colony," Yadros analyzed.

Oliveira said, "That's impossible, the Mozambique colony is on the East Coast, too far away."

"Remember last year, what those passing merchants said? There's a German force rising in the east, they've taken over the Kazemb Kingdom. Do you think it could be them?"

"But how do you explain the dress being similar to ours?"

"Maybe the indigenous people couldn't tell the difference between us and the Germans. They likely see us Europeans as indistinguishable, just like how we can't tell them apart."

Not wanting to speculate further, Oliveira instructed the translator, "Have these indigenous people describe any distinctive features of those they encountered."

The translator began his work again, soon having questioned all the captured indigenous people.

The translator shook his head and told Oliveira, "Mr. Oliveira, actually, none of these people have seen what those individuals look like, they only followed their tribes fleeing, having heard from others that white-faced monsters had appeared from the west, and they would eat people. According to them, many tribes had suffered at their hands, so they fled with their chiefs from the west."

"Where is their chief?"

"Uh, reportedly one of the people killed by our men with guns was their chief," said the translator.

After a long session of questioning with no desired answer, Oliveira angrily said, "Take them out and crucify them on the crosses."

How dare they call him a "white-faced monster that eats people," even though Oliveira knew these indigenous people referred to others, he still felt implicated.

Yadros then spoke, "It seems to get accurate information, we'll have to start from the Luanda Kingdom, we'll just have to send someone to go and ask their King."

"I guess that's all we can do," Oliveira responded.